"LAND HO!"
"Let go the mizzentop-sail halliards, and man the fore staysail down-
haul!" shouted out Captain Dinks the moment Mr Meldrum had spoken; and,
the helm being put down at the same time, the ship was again brought
head to wind, almost sooner than it has taken to describe the operation.
However, as it was observed after a little while that the vessel
drifted so rapidly to leeward, through the mere force of the wind on her
exposed hull and remaining spars, not to speak of the wash of the sea,
and thus ran in quite as great danger of colliding with the ice as if
she had been going ahead, the fore staysail, reefed into the most
attenuated proportions, was set again--so that the ship might be under
steerage way and be able to avoid, under judicious control, the numerous
small bergs that now hove in sight like miniature islands in every
direction, making the navigation perilous in the extreme.
As night came on, too, the dangers surrounding the _Nancy Bell_
increased tenfold; for, the wind not only blew with greater strength,
but it was accompanied by blinding showers of hail and snow, while a
thick fog rose from the freezing water, more like steam than anything
else, obscuring everything and preventing the floating ice from being
seen until it was immediately under the bows.
It was just about the beginning of the second dog-watch at four bells--
six o'clock in the evening--that the mist came; so, after a brief
consultation with Mr Meldrum, Captain Dinks told the chief mate to call
the hands aft.
"We are in as tight a hole, McCarthy," said he, "as the poor old ship
was ever placed in, and it will take us all our time to get out of it;
so, it's best to let all the hands know it, that each may do his best
for the good of all."
"Aye, aye, sorr," answered Mr McCarthy; "it's no sight o' use beating
about the bush when danger's under weigh. Till 'em the truth, Cap'en,
and shame the divil!" Soon afterwards, his ringing voice calling, "all
hands ahoy!" was heard forwards.
The crew were not long tumbling aft; and, when they had assembled on the
main deck, Captain Dinks addressed them from the break of the poop.
"Men," said he, "I'm sorry to say the _Nancy Bell_ is in a position of
the greatest peril. We are now, after fighting with a cyclone for five
days, being carried along by a rising gale into the midst of scattered
icebergs, any one of which may knock a hole in the ship; while if we
should run upon one of the bigger ones we must go to pieces at once.
You know how, throughout the bad weather we've had, I have tried, to
spare you as much as I could, conveniently with the proper working of
the ship, and I've always allowed the watches their regular spell below;
but to-night, and as long as we are surrounded by the ice, I can't allow
a man off duty! None of us can tell whether the _Nancy Bell_ will be
afloat and we alive by morning; so, no single hand must leave the deck
without special permission. You may be certain I sha'n't set the
example, and you can now go forwards. I am about to set fresh look-
outs, and each man will have his station."
The majority of the crew gave a cheer at this, Ben Boltrope's lusty
voice being conspicuously to the fore; but some, amongst whom was a lazy
lout named Bill Moody, who was the chief grumbler in the forecastle,
expressed their discontent audibly; saying that they "hadn't signed
articles to be worked like dogs!"
Captain Dinks' ears were pretty sharp, and he heard what was said; so he
called the men back.
"I know who spoke," said he, "and I wouldn't disgrace the rest of the
crew by supposing that they share his feelings; but I'll add this for
his benefit, that anybody who may be discontented will find me easy-
going enough when I am stroked the right way, but a pretty tough
customer when anybody falls athwart my hawse!"
While this little incident was taking place, of course, the usual look-
out was not neglected, the Norwegian being still aloft in the maintop,
with Frank Harness and Mr Adams on the forecastle; but now, extra men
were detailed for the duty. Karl Ericksen, called down from the maintop
where his range of view had become limited through the increasing
darkness and snowstorm, was placed between the knight-heads; a man on
each bow; Frank Harness on the fore scuttle; Mr McCarthy and Adams on
the port and starboard quarters; and Ben Boltrope at the wheel--Captain
Dinks being here, there, and everywhere to see that everybody was on the
_qui vive_, even ascending the mizzen rigging sometimes into the top, to
have an outlook from there and try whether his eyes could pierce the
misty vapour that hung over the sea by dint of looking down into it.
Thenceforward, throughout the weary night, there was little to do save
looking out and conning the ship.
When a large cake of ice or berg was seen drifting perilously near, or
bearing down upon the vessel, the word was passed along the deck from
forward to aft and her head turned one way or the other, the yards of
the mizzen-mast--now the only ones left on the ship, with the exception
of the fouled main-yard--being squared or braced up to help her
inclination to either side, which was also assisted by the loose
mizzentop sail. This latter had only been hauled up by the clewlines
and buntlines when sail was shortened, so as to be available to be
dropped and sheeted home at a moment's notice in any sudden emergency
when it might be necessary to get way on the ship to prevent her running
foul of some giant iceberg that was trying to overtake her. From
midnight the only break in the monotony of the silent watch, throughout
the anxious hours that elapsed before daylight, was the warning cry of
the look-outs' forward "Ice ahead!" or "Ice on the lee bow!" with the
sailing directions of the captain to the steersman, quickly following
the words of warning, "Hard up with the helm!" or else, "Keep her off a
little, my man!" or the single word,--sometimes the most important order
of all,--"Steady!"
In the cuddy, naturally, it was an equally anxious time throughout the
trying night; indeed, more so, considering the state of mind of those
concerned.
Mr Meldrum, on going below, had told of the course of things above,
explaining the perilous position of the ship without unduly alarming the
nervous susceptibilities of the women folk, and after his periodical
visits to the deck he brought back the cheering news that all was as yet
going on well; but still, the very fact of being unable to do anything
save watch and pray, was even more exhausting and wearying than in being
exposed to the bitter weather like the crew and officers of the ship
were--for the sense of duty and something constantly calling on their
attention prevented the latter from thinking, as those could only do who
had no cause or call for action.
The American passenger did not, however, appear in the least put out or
more than ordinarily impressed with the gravity of the situation, taking
it, as it were, as a matter of course.
"It's no use making a muss over what can't be helped," he said with the
utmost sang-froid. "The ship's in good hands, and as I can't do
anything, why I guess I'll let things ride and be as comf'able as I
ken." So he ate and drank with just as good an appetite as ever when
dinnertime came--though it was later than usual, through Snowball not
having been able to light the galley fire till nearly dark; and, on the
arrival, according to Mr Zachariah Lathrope's reckoning, of bedtime, he
curled himself up in his bunk, going to sleep as composedly as if he had
been safe and sound ashore, with the comforting assurance to the others,
as he said "good-night," that "if things should kinder turn out
onpleasant, why, I guess they'll rouse me up!"
Florry Meldrum, too, and Master Maurice Negus were not one whit the more
alarmed by the critical condition of the _Nancy Bell_ either; but,
neither Maurice's mother nor Kate closed their eyes for a moment the
livelong night.
When some feeble rays of light at length strayed down through the
skylight, causing the lamps over the cuddy table to burn more dimly,
when the scuttles in the cabins, seen through the half-opened doors,
became illumined by some reflection from without, showing that the long-
wished-for morning had broken at last, Kate, unable to endure the
suspense any longer, put on her cloak and went on deck.
The scene and all its surroundings had very much altered since she had
last been up the companion-way; so that when she got on the poop now, so
great a transformation had occurred that it seemed to her as if she were
in a species of nautical fairyland.
The ship herself was cased in ice--hull, spars, and standing rigging,
and all--with long pendulous icicles hanging from the main and mizzen
yards. The fog or mist having also cleared away and the clouds vanished
from the sky, every object glittered like jewels in the golden rays of
the rising sun.
But the _Nancy Bell_ was not the only object of attraction and interest.
She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction--to the right, to the
left, right in front, and astern--some little mites not bigger than
cockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so to
speak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eye
could reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her way
in and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlander
executing the sword-dance. The wind was still blowing more than half a
gale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running before
it under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been dropped
again with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, at
that.
Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarine
blue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun came
up higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shape
was as various as their sizes--bergs that in their gorgeous architecture
and fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, which
glittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours of
the rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet and
iris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange,
blush rose and pink and red--all mingled with soft shades of crimson and
carmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frosting
over all of bright white light.
"Ah!" ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away was
she by the vivid beauty of the scene, "those who haven't seen an iceberg
at sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God's
handiwork in nature!"
"They look beautiful enough now, missy," said Captain Dinks, who had
come to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done the
night before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; "but we
didn't think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poor
old _Nancy Bell_ would lay her old bones amongst them!"
"Ah! Captain Dinks," replied she, "there was One above looking after us
then, as he is now!"
"You are right," said he earnestly; "or we should never have escaped as
we did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all up
with us."
"Oh!" exclaimed Kate with a shudder, "it was a terrible night; and you
and the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold."
"Not a doubt of that," said Captain Dinks laughing. "I was almost half-
frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he
came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the
word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs! If it
hadn't been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every two
hours to warm us up, I don't believe any of us would have been alive
this morning. But here comes your father. How sly your were all to
keep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking him
all the time for a lubberly landsman! I'll never forgive myself; for
you must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and your
roguish little sister. Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum," added the
captain turning to that gentleman; "I was just thinking about you. I
wanted to have a consultation about our course. My dead reckoning is
all at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust we
shall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we will
be able to prick off our position on the chart."
"I sincerely hope so," said Mr Meldrum; "for I think we're going far
too much to the southward."
"Do you, still, eh?" replied Captain Dinks. "I don't quite agree with
you. I thought it best to keep the ship before the wind, not only
because it eases her but on account of the gale being bound to slacken
down soon; and if we run down to a lower latitude, as I have frequently
done in this part of the ocean before, we will probably get fine weather
and be able to tinker up the old craft and make her look all a taunto
again."
"Ah!" said Mr Meldrum, "you are just as likely to run on to something
else, not quite so pleasant as fine weather! Mark my words, Captain
Dinks, I am as certain, and more so now than I was three days ago, as I
told you then, that we are far down in the Forties; and what with the
easting we have made since passing the meridian of the Cape and the
leeway we have drifted, we must be pretty close to the Crozet Islands or
Kerguelen Land."
"Kerguelen Land!" ejaculated the captain; "nonsense, man; why we are
hundreds of miles to the westward of it."
"Are we?" replied Mr Meldrum. "Well, just wait till twelve o'clock and
we'll see who is right, you or I!"
Hardly, however, had the words escaped his lips than the look-out man in
the maintop--who had been replaced as soon as day broke, when the
prospect around the ship became more extended, thus rendering his
services useful--shouted out a cry that had almost been forgotten, and
which made every heart on board leap with mingled feelings of
overpowering joy, consternation, surprise, dismay! Every pulse stopped
for a second spellbound! The cry was--"Land ho!"